Headlines: Ramadan Crackdowns

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Ali Motahari told Soroush weekly magazine that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his supporters are like the Forghan organization.

Forghan was a radical Islamist group that was responsible for the assassinations of 12 Islamic Republic figures up to 1980. The father of Ali Motahari, prominent political activist Ayatollah Morteza Motahari, was assassinated by the Forghan organization.

Motahari described Ahmadinejad and his supporters as a group that "believes in an independent interpretation of Islam and does not subscribe to the clergy and sources of emulation."

Popular Iranian footballer Ali Karimi, sometimes described as "the Maradona of Asia," has been fired by his club for not fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the club said on Sunday.

Steel Azin FC said on its website www.steelazin.com that it was "forced to sack one of its players, Ali Karimi, for being disobedient and not fasting during Ramadan," when devout Muslims fast from dawn until dusk.

Clerics have raised objections to the Azan to Azan project, a program for screening films in large Iranian cities until late at night during the month of Ramadan.

The program was established to lessen the loss of box office receipts during the month, which is the slow season for Iranian cinema.

Providing a powerful lineup for this year, the ministry has extended the project to Ahvaz, Rasht, and several other cities, with movie theaters scheduled to run the project's films from 3 pm to 3 past midnight.

"Is there any control on cinemas that encourage people to watch films during Ramadan instead of praying and supplicating?" Mashhad Friday prayer leader Seyyed Ahmad Alamolhoda said on Friday.

He asked city officials to put a halt to the project and added, "They have created entertainment to prevent people from contemplating about God and the Quran."

The Iranian girls soccer team can concentrate on winning matches at the Youth Olympics now that the controversy over their headscarves has been settled.

The compromise outfit consists of a cap, long-sleeved tops, below-knee trousers and long stockings. The new white apparel was created by Iranian designers and has red-and-green details in the colors of the Iranian flag.

But even the new outfit has angered some in Iran.

It was unveiled last month during a practice session, prompting Marzieh Akbarabadi, who is in charge of all women's sports in Iran, to storm off in protest. She called the new uniform inappropriate though she did not elaborate on what aspect of the uniform she was against.

Iran exported over $5.7 billion worth of industrial and mineral products between March 21 and June 21, 2010.

The main target markets for exports were Iraq, China, the United Arab Emirates, India, and South Korea.

Iran's petrochemical production and exports also increased in the first quarter of the current Iranian year. Around 13.3 million tons of petrochemicals were produced in the first 124 days of the Iranian calendar year.

Iranian lawmaker Seyyed Ali Mousavi Jorf says the increase in foreign investments in the country shows the ineffectiveness of sanctions.

"Despite the West's media war to portray Iran as insecure, foreign investors have displayed considerable interest in investing in the country," member of the Majlis Economic Commission Seyyed Ali Mousavi Jorf said on Saturday.

Heidar Moslehi, Iran's intelligence minister, warned about a "new soft war project to convert Muslims to Christianity" aimed at Iranian teenagers. Moslehi believes that the project is being carried out by a "Protestant group backed by Zionists." He added that they are active in schools. Their slogan is "Just Jesus."

In a gathering of officials of Education Minister on August 9, 2009, he asserted that the government differentiates between this group [that aims to convert Muslims] and the "legally recognized religious minorities."

Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff for defense publicity, suggested the establishment of a new governmental ministry to solely focus on "policy making, coordinating, and directing the efforts" to fight the "soft war."

In an exclusive interview with IRNA, Gen. Jazayeri said that a new ministry is needed in order "to defuse enemy's efforts."

Iranian theatre director Amir Dejakam, who was previously declined permission to stage Sidney Kingsley's "Darkness at Noon," by the monitoring and evaluation council of the dramatic arts center of Iran, has proposed a new play to the council. He has asked the council to review "Accidental Death of an Anarchist" by Dario Fo.

"Darkness at Noon," originally a novel written by Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940, was adapted for stage in 1951 by Sidney Kingsley. It is the story of trials and imprisonment of a few communist political activists during Stalin's reign in the USSR.

Dejakam said that the council has informed him that "Darkness at Noon" was not a suited to be staged because of the current state of Iranian society.